Uz'za (Heb. Uzza', ST", strength^, the name of three Hebrews. See also Uzzah.
1. (Sept. 'AL,a ; Vulg. Oza.) First named of the two sons of Ehud the Benjamite, born to him after the re- moval of his former cldldren (1 Chron. viii, 7). B.C. ante 1612. See Shaiiahaim.
2. (Sept. 'O^a; Vulg. /l2«.) Apparently the propri- etor of a garden in which IManasseh and Amon were buried (2 Kings xxi, 18, 26). B.C. ante 642. See be- low.
3. (Sept. 'Asa v.r. 'A?w. 'A^i, etc.; Vulg.vlza.) The head of a family of Nethinim who returned from Baby- lon with Zerubbabel (Ezra ii, 49; Neh. vii, 51). B.C. ante 536.
UZZA, The Garden of (Heb. /7flw Uzzd, XTi' "5; Sept. KijTCOQ 'OL,a ; Vulg. hortvs Aza), the spot in which Manasseh, king of Judah, and his son Amon, were both buried (2 Kings xxi, 18, 26). It was the garden attach- ed to Manasseh's palace (ver. 18; 2 Chron. xxxiii, 20), and therefore presumably was in Jerusalem. The fact of its mention shows that it was not where the usual sepulchres of the kings were. Josephus (.4?;^ x, 3, 2) simply reiterates the statement of tlie Bible. It is in- geniously suggested by Cornelius a. Lapide that the gar- den was so called from being on the spot at which Uz- zah died during the removal of the ark from Kirjath- jearim to Jerusalem, and which is known to have re- tained his name for long after the event (2 Sam. vi, 8). See Obed-edom. The scene of Uzzaii's death was it- self a threshing-floor (ver. 6), and the change of the word from this, goren, ""IS, into gan, "J, garden, would not be difficidt or improbable.
Bunsen (Bihelirerk, note on 2 Kings xxi, 18), on the strength of the mention of "palaces" in the same para- graph with Ophel (A. V. " forts") in a denunciation of
UZZAH
689
UZZIA
Isaiah (xxxii, 14), asserts that a palace was situated in the Tyropreoii valley at the tV)()t of the Temple mount, and that this was in all probability the palace ofManas- seh and the site of the Garden of Uzzah ! — Smith. See
UzZAH.
Uz'zah (Heb. Uzznh', tlty, strength, i. q. Uzza, which in a few passages stands instead of it; Sept. 'O^o [and so Josepluis] v. r. 'A^a; Vulg. Oza), the name of two Hebrews.
1. A Merarite Levite, son of Shimei (q. v.) and father of Shimea (1 Cbron. vi, 2;» [Heb. 14] ; A. V. " Uzza"). B.C. ante 1043. For a refutation of some arbitrary hy- potheses of interpreters on this genealogy, see Keil ad loc.
2. One of the sons of Abinadab, in whose house at Kirjath-jearim the ark rested for twenty years. In 2 Sara. (vi,3 in the A.V. ; and in verses 0,7,8 in the Heb. also) he is invariably called "Uzzah;" but in 1 Chron. (xiii, 7, 9, 11) as invariably " Uzza." The eldest son of Abinadab (1 Sam. vii, 1) seems to have been Eleazar, who was consecrated to look after the ark. Uzzah, probably, was the second, and Ahio (q. v.) the third. 'J'lie latter two accompanied its removal when David first undertook to carry it to .Jerusalem. B.C. 1043. Ahio apparently went before the cart — the new cart (1 Chron. xiii, 7) — on which the ark was placed, and Uzzah walked by its side. The procession, with all manner of music, advanced as far as a spot variously called "the threshing-floor" (ver. 9); "the threshing- floor of Chidon" (ibid.) ; " the threshing-floor of Na- chon" (2 Sam. vi, 6, Sept. "Nachor"). At this point — perhaps slipping over the smooth rock — the oxen (Sept. "the calf") stumbled (Sept. "overturned the ark"). Uzzah caught it to prevent its falling. He died imme- diate!}' by the side of the ark. His death, by whatever means it was accomplislied, was so sudden and awful that, in the sacred language of the Old Test., it is as- cribed directly to the divine anger. "The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there." "For his error," 5'i"il~il.", adds the Hebrew text, "because he put his hand to the ark" (1 Chron. xiii, 10). Josephus (.4n^ vii, 4, 2) makes the sin to be because he touched the ark not being a priest (see below). But the narrative seems to imjdy that there was a rotigh, hasty handling of the sacred coffer. The evenc pro- duced a deep sensation. David, with a mixture of awe and resentment, was afraid to carry the ark farther; and the place, apparently changing its ancient name [see Uzza, Gardkx of], was henceforth called " Perez-Uz- zah" (q. v.), the "breaking" or "disaster" of Uzzah (2 Sam. vi, 8; 1 Chron. xiii, 11). — Smith. See David.
Josephus distinctly says that Uzzah was of a Leviti- cal family (^Ant. vi, 1, 4). It was because Abinadab. his father, was a Levite, no doubt, that the ark was taken into his house at Kirjath-jearim. as it was afterwards taken into the house of Obed-edom, the Gittite, for the same reason. Nor can it be very well understood how, if Abinadab was not a Levite, his son Eleazar should have been consecrated to take charge of the ark (1 Sam. vii, 2). It is possible that Abinadab (Sept. ' AfxivaSali, Josephus, 'AfiivaSal3og) was the same as Amniinadub, spoken of in 1 Chron. xv, 10 as one of the chiefs of the Levites appointed by David to bring up the ark from the house of Obed-edom to Jerusalem. It is most rea- sonable to suppose that the person who had entertained the ark at Kirjath-jearim should have the honor of at- tending its comiug-up afterwards from the house of Obed-edom to Jerusalem ; and Amminadab was a son of Uzziel, and therefore of the family of Kohath, who were the persons appointed to bear the ark (vi, 18; Numb, iv, 15). But they were forbidden to touch the ark. It was only a priest of Aaron's family, i. e. of the high-priest's family, that was allowed to touch the ark (ver. 5, Ih). The sin of Uzzah, therefore, was not, as commonly represented, that of a layman or an unor- dained person presuming to encroach upon the office of X,-X X